Fewer than 500 homes still without power from weekend storms

Power has been restored for nearly all of the nearly 30,000 customers affected by heavy storms that passed through the area over the weekend, toppling trees and damaging buildings.

West Penn Power reported that as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, 450 homes in Westmoreland County were still waiting for the power to come back on.

Ligonier Township still had 204 homes without power and 65 homes in Unity were in the dark. Half a dozen other communities where the power went out had fewer than 30 homes waiting for the power to come back on.

Only five homes in Fayette and Allegheny counties were still without power Tuesday morning.

Friday night’s power outage forced Greater Latrobe Senior High to cancel the school’s weekend performances of the musical “Pippin.” The district indicated that the show will be rescheduled.

“A few minutes before the curtain came up on ‘Pippin’ Friday night, the power went out at the high school,” said school district Superintendent Mike Porembka.

Five trees on the high school campus fell, affecting seven utility poles serving the senior high and adjoining junior high, Porembka said. He said West Penn Power crews completed repairs but he supported the decision by the musical’s directors to cancel remaining shows on Saturday and Sunday because of the uncertainty about additional potential outages.

He said the outage also affected computer servers that support all the district’s schools but that technicians completed a “work-around” and there are no disruptions lingering.

West Penn Power spokesman Josh Duke said the utility had crews working 16-hour shifts to make repairs, including additional contracted workers and personnel reassigned from sister utilities.

He said West Penn expects to have power restored to all customers by late Monday night.

“We do hope it’s sooner,” he said.

He said sustained high winds of more than 30 to 40 mph initially prevented crews from ascending safely on bucket trucks to work on damaged lines.

“The amount of tree damage and forestry damage and downed power lines made it difficult to access damaged sites,” Duke said. “There were some very wet off-road conditions.”

The National Weather Service in Moon reported wind gusts of 60 mph just before 8 p.m. Friday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity and 52 mph at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday at Allegheny County Airport. The strong winds subsided at about 1 p.m. Saturday.

Damage to structures was reported in both counties. In Westmoreland, at least five homes in Unity were damaged by fallen trees, and a roof was blown off a structure in Mt. Pleasant Township, officials said.

A gas station in Connellsville was among buildings damaged in Fayette County.

National Weather Service meteorologist Lee Hendricks said conditions should remain relatively calm for the remainder of the week ahead.

Peak gusts of just 25 mph are possible Tuesday afternoon but the winds should die down soon after sunset that day, he said.

Conditions also will cool down somewhat temperature-wise, according to Hendricks.

“For the rest of the week, at best, we’ll have highs in the mid- to upper-40s,” he said.

Few roads remained closed to traffic because of debris, according to PennDOT. Route 1007 (Ross Mountain Park Road) remains closed from Umheys Road in Ligonier Township to Route 1002 (Mountain View Road) in Fairfield Township due to downed trees and wires.